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READING'S postal service is failing to meet national targets, according to new figures.

And postmen trying to maintain standards have told the Evening Post how they now despair of the job they once loved.

The latest series of performance indicators based on the Royal Mail's own minimum standards reveal that Reading postcodes were among five out of 14 in the South to fail the 90.5 per cent regional target for first class mail delivered the next day.

Reading scored just under the target, at 90.4 per cent.

One postie, whose identity is being protected, has told the Evening Post that Royal Mail is relying on too many temporary workers.

He says many of them are not properly trained and some have insufficient knowledge of the English language.

He also claims most letters are now being delivered late, following Royal Mail's decision to switch to one daily delivery.

"They say they have scrapped the second delivery, but in reality they have scrapped the first delivery. Nobody in Reading gets their mail at 7am any more," he told the

He said: "There is a high reliance on temporary staff and there have been problems implementing single delivery.

"It is a low-paid industry and industrial relations could be better." "There are big issues and there is a lot of work to do," Mr Hepburn continued.

He added that despite only missing the target by 0.1 per cent, the figures were "very

disappointing for the people of Reading".

His view will not surprise Tina Atkins, who recently found 32 of her neighbours' letters dumped in a recycling box by an agency temp employed by Royal Mail.

Mum-of-two Miss Atkins, from Cranbury Road, said: "It's awful, it sounds like they are having a bad year and they are letting customers down in the process.

"The post used to be here when you came downstairs but now I don't get it until 11am and once I got it at 5.45pm. We are getting a second class postal service".

An Evening Post investigation has revealed Reading postal staff and union chiefs blame a series of profit oriented and cost-cutting

measures introduced by bosses for the problems.

But bosses say the figures have to be seen in context and the town is definitely not getting a "second-class service".

Kevin Bunch, area delivery manager in charge of 450 staff at the Royal Mail branches in Loverock Road, Caversham Road and East Reading, said: "Current representations about the service in Reading and reality simply do not match up."